Tag: Digitalis

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Set by the banks of the crystal River Test, cutting through the chalk downland, sits Mottisfont Priory, dating to the 13th Century and with a colourful history right up to the 20th Century with Maud and Gilbert Russell bringing life again to the old house and the National Trust subsequently taking the House and Gardens into its care – and particularly honouring its rose heritage The towering figure of Graham Stuart Thomas favoured the walled garden as a repository for […]

A warm bright day and summer feels like it has arrived at Petersham Nurseries – well honestly it is June already. There are roses everywhere, big fat bright buds and blowsy blooms – and the scents! Old Rose and Spice (even a touch of Old Spice), vanilla and clove, fruit (citrus and peach, mango and melon), Pernod even – a welcome return of many old friends after an absence of nearly half a year. Perennials in leaf and flower, delicious […]

I arrived at Petersham Nurseries 45 minutes earlier than necessary with a view to taking a few pictures – and I am a speedy photographer – so here is a little gallery of plants that are both conveniently for sale or at home in the Cutting Garden (a practical resource for so much of the nurseries’ floristry needs as well as a seed-bed for inspiration). I was not disappointed. After a day of sunshine and rain, and having watered extensively […]

I’m preparing for a workshop covering the possibilities for gardening in a little – or a lot – of shade and have begun to put together the gallery (above, but more to come) to illustrate some of the contenders that anyone tackling such a proposition might entertain. Damp shade and dry shade, dappled shade and beneath trees and hedges, on sunless walls and more open northerly aspects, covering the woodland floor or brightening up a summer container. The possibilities […]

A pilgrimage to these gardens, for which, so far as the roses are concerned, we have Graham Stuart Thomas to thank principally and for the last 40+ years, the National Trust for preserving and enhancing his original collection of Old Roses. Mottisfont holds the National Collection of Shrub Roses. I met Jonny Bass, the head gardener who took over from David Stone last year too – I saw him last year at the Heritage Rose Foundation Conference when David stepped […]

The rich red of Tess of the D’Urbervilles, against a tapestry of blackberry and plum tones from the Penstemons, dark leaves of one hydrangea and the cranberry flowers of Pink Annabelle. These might not all be bedfellows in your border, but the colour associations can still be made. Tess is one of David Austin’s Fragrant English Climbers, and I’m thinking of a richly-coloured Clematis viticella… More roses, while we’re on the subject – Meanwhile, and for balance, a few flowers […]

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Teddington Gardener

These pages illustrate my love of plants and gardens, design and creative expression – learning more about horticulture and sharing the knowledge. Here you will find a showcase for my own photography, commentary on plants and places visited, horticultural know-how, a dose of inspiration and a seasonal diary for your garden.